Some vehicles include an autonomous operation system with an operational mode in which the vehicle is driven along a travel route with minimal or no input from a human driver. In these vehicles, the autonomous operation system is configured to detect information about the environment surrounding the vehicle, including the presence of objects, and process the detected information in order to plan how to drive the vehicle along a travel route while avoiding the objects.
In real world traffic situations, as a part of this detection and planning, it is desirable for the autonomous operation system to classify the objects in the environment surrounding the vehicle in order to account not only for other vehicles, but also for pedestrians and bicycles, among other objects. Improving the autonomous operation system's classification of the objects in the environment surrounding the vehicle is the subject of ongoing research.